A great many consumers purchase wireless routers for home use. Often, such consumers are technological neophytes and cannot successfully handle even relatively simple manual router configuration tasks. Even for technologically-sophisticated users, however, the present expectation is that even complex devices such as routers will install and work right out of the box, in the same manner as a common household appliance. Toward that end, many routers are configured with a Web-based user interface (UI) designed to guide the user, often using a wizard, through the installation process. However, in the event the router encounters an Internet Protocol (IP) address conflict, the consumer may not even be able to access the Web UI if the consumer cannot even access the router. Routers are typically sold configured with a default Local Area Network (LAN) IP address. Different manufacturers commonly ship routers pre-configured with different default LAN IP addresses. For example, if a router is pre-configured with a default LAN IP address and is assigned, during installation, a Wide Area Network (WAN) address that is in the same subnet as the LAN IP address, a conflict exists and the router may be effectively unusable until the IP address conflict is resolved.
Such conflict may occur, for example, when the consumer connects the router to the modem or other network gateway device and powers the router up before being instructed to do so by the router configuration wizard. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) could then assign the router a LAN IP address that conflicts with the WAN IP address assigned by the modem, thereby preventing the consumer from accessing and using the router's Web UI. Understandably, this may result in confusion, frustration and may contribute to an unfavorable opinion on the user-friendliness of the manufacturer of the router.